mere brother ki dulhan – movie review

cast : imran khan, katrina kaif, ali zafar, tara d’souzathe theme (marriage) of this movie is already explored zillions of times in bollywood and many of them were from the same yrf camp. but this movie is refreshing and fun to watch. the chemistry between the lead pair is amazing. there are great performances by all the actors who play important characters in the film.

luv (ali zafar), based in london, breaks up his 5-year old relationship with his girl friend pyaali (tara d’souza) and is emotionally very disturbed. he wants to settle down so he appoints his brother, kush (imran khan), the task of finding a suitable bride. after meeting few stereotype families and getting more appalled after meeting each new prospect, they finally zero in on dimple (katrina kaif).

kush knows dimple from college days as an open-minded, wild, fun-loving, crazy girl and is shocked to see that she has agreed for an arranged marriage. after the formalities are dealth with and the prospective couple have a video-chat over internet, the marriage is fixed and the preparations begin.
kush and dimple spend most of the time together, shopping, eating, hanging out, having fun and eventually fall for each other. but they realise it a little late because till then, dimple and luv are already engaged. then begins the plan to cancel the marriage without inviting the wrath of both the families and without spoiling the name of the families in the society.

and that’s when the film loses out on all the brownie points that it had collected in the first half. the thing is, the first half is so full of entertainment that you expect the second half to be the same. which doesn’t actually happen, because most of the scenes are predictable and cliched. but then, the film still catches up on it’s meritorious points again towards the end. though the twists seem a little exaggerated at the end, they are different and funny too.

the music is too good which adds up some brownie points to the movie’s plot. the songs are groovy, foot-tapping, classy, urbane yet massy. “dhunki” (exclusively choregraphed on katrina, who is shown as rock-star), “choomantar”, “madhubala”, “kaisa ye isk hai”,”do dhari talwar” (picturised on tara and imran) and the title song are beautifully choreographed. the choreography is amazing with some great dance steps completely in sync with the music and the beats.
in the title song, references are made to amir’s “rang de basanti”, salman’s “mujhse shadi karogi”, shah rukh’s “dil se.” and also to hrithik’s “jodha akbar” and shah rukh’s “main hoo na” in the song “kaisa ye isk hai”.

the film also gives nice punch-lines.
in the beginning, dimple says, ” when a guy in india flirts with 3-4 women at a time, he is called as a ‘stud’ but if a woman is open, friendly and modern, people think of her as a ‘bitch’ or a ‘slut’ and looked upon as a woman who’d be easily flattered. ”
kush replies, “this is india. every country has it’s own principles and culture. here girls are not as extrovert as in other countries, they are shy, introvert and confined to home. the times will change, but will take time to change as well.”
when kush is irritated with the stereotype and dumbness of the people and he vents out his frustrations, his friend says, ” this is not a movie. this is real life. middle class people are like this only and they ask dumb questions only. you have to face the reality.”
when nothing else seems to be working and dimple asks kush to elope with her and marry, kush doesn’t agree and says, “however progressive i become, i cannot leave my middle-class values. i cannot live without my family and friends forever. and i cannot bring bad name to my family just to get the love of my life.”

the star of the movie is katrina kaif. it’s inarguably her career-best performance and she looks so damn hot in her both the avatars, be it wild/crazy chic in the past or urban indian woman in the second half. she looks amazingly beautiful in each and every scene and attire, be it skirts and tops, jeans and tops, or sari, she looks more beautiful in every new attire than the previous one.
imran khan is a natural and comes up with a very good performance as a perfect chocolate-boy, modern yet a man with typical middle-class values. ali zafar over acts a little but his face expressions makes you laugh most of the times. the moms on the both side have nothing much to do but just to be on the screen. both the fathers come up with decent performances.

on the whole, the movie, mere brother ki dulhan, is entertaining, heart-warming, and yrf camp, the king of rom-coms, yet again comes up with a nice enjoyable movie.